Published: Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 9:00 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 9:00 p.m.

PORT CHARLOTTE — David Price had that look when he was walking around the clubhouse Sunday morning.

That look like he was going to take the mound in the middle of September with the Rays in a pennant race.

“I’m not good enough just to flip the switch. April 1 is less than a month away,” Price said. “I’m not that type of person. Whether it’s backyard baseball or whatever it is, if it’s my day to pitch, my day to play, I’m going to take it serious.”

Price pitched like he was serious. Grunting on nearly every offering, the left-hander threw three shutout innings with five strikeouts in Tampa Bay’s 7-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins in front of 4,548 fans at Charlotte Sports Park.

“I’m not going to come out here and get it handed to me and be like, ‘OK, I don’t care. This is just spring training.’ That’s not the way I operate,” Price said.

He sat down the first eight hitters before Ray Olmedo singled with two outs in the third. Price then struck out Aaron Hicks to end his outing.

“Just getting ahead. Being able to throw my fastball where I wanted to. That’s what we did today,” Price said. “Fastball felt really good. Changeup felt good. The cutter felt good as well.”

“Price was very good,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “He had a good fastball. Looks like he was working on that backdoor cutter. That was also very sharp. He was a strike thrower. I liked it.”

The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner is working toward his second Opening Day start April 2 at Tropicana Field against Baltimore.

“It felt good,” Price said. “It felt really good. Keep working off of that and just keep going. I want to build confidence and get a head of steam going.”

Rays DH Luke Scott experienced tightness in his left hamstring while running to first base on a fly ball during the second inning.

“Just precautionary stuff,” he said. “Didn’t want to mess with it. I ran, came back to the dugout and it was just a little bit tight. Hopefully I’ll be back in a couple of days.”

He was removed for pinch-hitter DH Mike Fontenot.

Scott did not think the injury was serious.

“The muscle’s just tight,” Scott said. “I think cold day, a little bit of fatigue from working my legs, I worked my legs pretty hard this week. I’ve had stuff like this many times before. I’m not worried.”

“A little bit of tightness in his hamstring,” Maddon said. “Totally precautionary with the cold day. Just got him out of there. There’s nothing wrong. When you hear tightness on a day like today, you just want to get him out of there.”

Trainer Ron Porterfield told Maddon that Scott was fine.

“But we just thought this was a day not to push it,” Maddon said.

Scott played in 96 games with the Rays last season, spending two stints on the disabled list because of back and oblique problems. He appeared in 64 with Baltimore in 2011, suffering a torn labrum in his right shoulder.

• INF/OF Ben Zobrist packed his bags and headed to Arizona to be with his Team USA teammates in preparation for the World Baseball Classic. Team USA will train at the Salt River Fields, spring home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and play exhibition games against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday and Colorado on Wednesday.

Team USA’s first game in Pool D play is Friday against Mexico.

• C Jose Molina also departed to be with Puerto Rico, which is training at the Boston Red Sox spring training site in Fort Myers. Puerto Rico has a couple of exhibition games against the Red Sox on Tuesday and Minnesota on Wednesday before its Pool C opener against Spain on Friday in Puerto Rico.

• RH reliever Fernando Rodney is not expected to leave until after Monday to join his Dominican Republic teammates in Tampa. The Dominican Republic has scheduled exhibition games against Philadelphia on Tuesday and the New York Yankees on Wednesday. The Dominican Republic’s first game in Pool C is Thursday against Venezuela in Puerto Rico.

• LH Cesar Ramos (Mexico) and LH Alex Torrez (Venezuela) also are representing Tampa Bay in the WBC, as are minor leaguers Leonardo Reginatto and Iago Januario, both playing for Brazil.

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